My plan for the day was to visit Cardiff Castle and the National Museum of Wales. This was my first ultimate tourist move of the day: forgetting that the museum would probably be closed on a Monday. Luckily, I was warned by the owner of my hotel and he recommended the second bit tourist move of the day: go on the sightseeing bus tour. I decided to follow his advice, since the day was grey and it was not going to be a fun day to walk around Cardiff.
Since the day was so rainy, I was stuck behind a wet window for my tour, which my camera did not appreciate. The bus left from outside the castle and toured around the civic center of the city, where we saw a film crew shooting outside city hall. Our guide believed it was either the crew of "Doctor Who" or "Sherlock," which are both centered in Cardiff. It was also graduation from the University of Cardiff, so there were lots of caps and gowns strolling up and down the streets. One of the photos I did get from the bus was this sort of Impressionistic picture of a graduate and his family walking down the street.
As we drove through the city, I learned about the history of Cardiff. The city was really made by three men, the Marquesses of Bute. They were responsible for the boom and importance of Welsh coal and controlled most of the mineral rights in Southern Wales. This made them the wealthiest family in the world, making in excess of £5 billion a year, in todays money. The boom of the coal industry and the wealth in the city allowed for the expansion of the city, the growth of the port, and the boom in population.
The city had a huge decline after World War I and the reduction in the use of coal. The city began to diversify and went through many renovations. The bay was turned into a new center for Cardiff, and Wales, bringing together culture, leisure, and work. The bay has a great deal of restaurants, a beautiful concert hall, and the seat of Welsh government. The picture above shows the old Pierhead Building reflected in the glass of the Senedd, the National Assembly building.
I had a nice lunch of fish and chips down in the bay and then caught the sightseeing bus again. It dropped me off right outside the castle and the only Roman ruins visible in Cardiff. In the walls of the castle battlements, there are still some portions of the Roman wall visible. The Roman fort was first developed in around 55 CE, but these stones are from the fourth rebuilding of the fort, in the mid-3rd century CE. The Roman fort is supposed to have followed the layout of the current castle battlements and portions are rebuilt to look Roman (see the picture below and the picture of the gate from yesterday's post).
Once inside the battlements, the Norman keep dominates the castle green. The first Norman keep, and the motte below it, were built in the 11th century, but replaced by this stone shell keep in the 12th century. A shell keep means that walls were not actually the walls of the keep, but rather high walls surrounding interior buildings and protecting them. I went up into the keep and you could see the remains of a massive chimney, presumably for the great room, and many holes in the walls for where timber supports would have gone. I decided that there wasn't much need to climb all the way to the highest point on the tower.
The later castle within the walls was significantly remodeled over the centuries, turning into the Gothic Revival building seen today. The Marquesses of Bute did a great deal of updating to the castle, first making it into a Georgian home and then adding the Gothic Revival features. The castle was the home to four Marquesses of Bute, but was then given to the city of Cardiff after the death of the fourth Marquess in 1947.
The interior of the castle is open to the public, although to see all the rooms you have to be on a guided tour. As I was walking through, I stumbled across a few tour groups and learned some interesting facts. To create the banquet hall (below) the third Marquess destroyed seven bedrooms on the second floor of the castle to create a massive hall. The room is decorated with the history of his family, whom are descended from the kings of Scotland. The space is also available for events for weddings. Only £500...an hour.
There are many different themed rooms in the home, including a gorgeous "Arab Room" with beautiful muqarnas, ornamented vaults, on the ceiling. They reminded me a great deal of the many muqarnas I saw while visiting the Arab parts of Palermo, Sicily.
Beneath the banquet hall, there is a beautiful, ornate library. There is actually a wonderful spiral staircase (which is closed to the public) leading directly from the banquet hall to the library. Just in case you needed a quick study snack!
Another wonderful feature of Cardiff Castle is the clock tower. I'm not entirely sure why, but the tower, which was built in 1868, is covered in depictions of Roman deities. On the four sides, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sol, Venus, Mercury, and Luna are depicted. Maybe it was a nod to the Roman fort that once stood on the castle site or maybe it has some other allegorical meaning, but I still appreciated the Classical references.
After the castle, I retreated back to my hotel to escape the rain for a few hours. I went back into Cardiff center for dinner (it involved smoked mozzarella and there are few things better in this world). I decided to wander after dinner, which ended up with me getting locked in Bute Park. After slipping through a gate, I decided it was a sign to head back to my hotel for the night.
Fun Fact #16: In the 19th century, many of the wives of the Cardiff dock workers had jobs with a potato company. This meant that the women, known as potato lasses, were unloading hundred pound sacks of potatoes from the ships. They were strong and apparently quite boisterous. The headlines were filled with stories of the potato lasses getting in bar fights and pushing around their husbands. They were certainly not to be messed with!
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